Music News

Lawson, Kate Tempest and Shamir have been added to The Great Escape festival line-up. The 'Standing in the Dark' hitmakers are just one of 100 acts announced to play at the three-day metropolitan festival in Brighton in May, as well as the Mercury Pri...

Noel Gallagher insists he hasn't had a serious request to reform Oasis.
The 47-year-old rocker revealed although he is frequently questioned on whether he has plans to reform the 'Wonderwall' band with his younger brother Liam Gallagher, he has never been approached by anyone with a genuine offer for the group to reunite.
He explained: "Given all the rumours, I haven't had one serious offer for a reunion gig."
The Britpop band originally split in 2009 after an explosive row between the brothers, leading to the remaining members forming the ill-fated band Beady Eye with Liam, which also split up last year.
And while Beady Eye performed at Glastonbury festival in south-west England in 2013, he added organiser Michael Eavis has not queried whether they would team up once again to play at the annual event.
He told The Times newspaper: "Michael Eavis has never called up and asked if Oasis will play Glastonbury."
The musician - who released his second solo album 'Chasing Yesterday' this week - recently revealed even if they were offered a lot of money to get back together, it's very unlikely they would do so, and it's more probable he will make a record with Blur's Damon Albarn.
He confessed: "Is it likely to happen? No, me and Damon making a double album is probably more likely to happen".

Super Furry Animals have announced their first UK shows in six years.
The psychedelic rockers went on an indefinite hiatus in 2010 but are set to reform to play a string of five tour dates in May.
Speaking in next week's issue of NME magazine, frontman Gruff Rhys said: "It will be good just to play and hang out again. We'll probably be doing a different set every night and songs off all our nine studio albums. We'll be doing quite a lot of 'Mwng' because it's fun to play, but probably not the whole thing."
The tour will see them play two shows at Cardiff University (1-2.05.15) before heading to Glasgow's O2 Academy (5.05.15), Manchester's Albert Hall (6.05.15) and the O2 Academy Brixton in London (8.05.15).
The band - which formed in Cardiff in 1993 - released their ninth studio album 'Dark Days/Light Years' in 2009 but then parted ways to focus on their side projects, with Gruff choosing to concentrate on his solo career which has seen him release four albums.
As well as the tour, the band - which also features Huw Bunford, Guto Pryce, Cian Ciaran and Dafydd Ieuan - will reissue their fourth studio album 'Mwng' on May 1 as a two-disc and triple-vinyl package to mark its 15th anniversary, containing five additional tracks which previously featured on the US release of the record, 'Mwng Bach', as well as a live session recorded with John Peel.
Tickets to the shows go on sale on March 5.

Sam Smith isn't feeling pressure over his new music.
The 'Lay Me Down' hitmaker topped charts around the world with his debut album 'In the Lonely Hour' last year but insisted he isn't feeling anxious about creating the follow-up record, especially as he recently penned a track which he described as "really, really, really good".
Speaking to Nick Grimshaw on BBC Radio 1, he said: "I'm very passionate about growing with music and growing as a person, and actually I wrote a song a few weeks ago which has taken the pressure off me because it feels really, really, really good, so no I'm not feeling pressure. I'm never going to repeat what I just did, it's just going to be different."
In recognition of his exceptional success in the past 12 months, the 22-year-old singer won BRIT awards for British Breakthrough Act and Global Success at the ceremony on Wednesday (25.02.15), and explained the wins, along with his four Grammy awards, have made him determined to continue to improve.
He told the Daily Star newspaper: "Getting the Breakthrough award was particularly exciting because it's from the fans.
"Winning BRITs makes me want to work harder on my voice, train more and just get better and better."

Blur will be supported by Metronomy and The Horrors at Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Hyde Park. The electro pop and garage rock bands will play before the recently reformed four-piece 'Parklife' hitmakers at the central London park when the...

Kanye West says working with Sir Paul McCartney was "next level".
The 'Power' hitmaker has collaborated with the iconic musician on several tracks for his forthcoming seventh solo studio album and praised the 72-year-old star for his songwriting prowess, especially on Rihanna's single 'FourFiveSeconds' on which they also feature.
He said: "She [Rihanna] was killing that.
"I liked songs like that when I was growing up. I mean the type of chord changes Paul does, I don't even understand them. And to be able to be involved with writing a song like that, it's way next level."
The 37-year-old rapper - who performed his track 'All Day' at the BRIT Awards in London on Wednesday (25.02.15) - admitted he has been so inspired by the Beatles singer during his career that he likened him to his favourite fashion designer, Ralph Lauren.
He explained: "Meeting Paul McCartney is like meeting Ralph Lauren, it's like, wow. The greatest of their field. Period. Of all time."
And although the two musicians come from different backgrounds and have opposite personalities, Kanye insisted they worked well together when they were in the studio.
Speaking on BBC Radio 1, he said: "But it's all love, and great energy and positive energy and I just like the differences of views with our approach to music. Like when I'm sitting making music with Paul McCartney, I come in and I have all these lists of complaints, 'This happened, and that happened!' and he says, 'Yo man it's all cool though, how about we make a song?' And we just make song after song after song after song after song after song."

Kanye West wants to collaborate with Bruno Mars.
The 37-year-old rapper previously slammed the 'Uptown Funk' singer after seeing him take home two prizes at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2013 but he's now spoken out to apologise and confess that he would like to work with him.
He wrote on Twitter: "I also want to publicly apologise to Bruno Mars, I used to hate on him but I really respect what he does as an artist.
"I also would love for Bruno to sing this hook on this song 88 Keys / Puff and I produced... I even asked Tyler to shoot the vid. (sic)."
Kanye - who unveiled his latest track 'All Day' at the BRIT Awards in London on Wednesday (25.02.15) night - ranted about Bruno's VMAs success during a concert in 2013.
He said: "I'm sitting there, I'm trying to enjoy motherf**kers performing and s**t. I'm looking, I'm watching Drake perform, I see Bruno Mars perform and s**t. And then they start giving out awards and s**t, and Bruno Mars won all the motherf**king awards, and s**t.
"Can't no motherf**king networks try to gas everybody up so they can sell some product with the prettiest motherf**ker out. I still ain't see a video better than Beyonce video 'til this motherf**king day."
The 'Clique' hitmaker's comments came after he interrupted Taylor Swift's win at the same awards ceremony in 2009 to claim Beyonce should have received the Best Female Video accolade.
Meanwhile, Kanye has also apologised to Beck for attempting to storm the stage when he was handed the Best Album prize at the Grammys earlier this year, once again claiming Beyonce was more deserving of the award.
He wrote on Twitter last night (26.02.15): "I would like to publicly apologise to Beck, I'm sorry Beck. (sic)."

Little Mix's new single "is a bit of a risk".
The four-piece girl group - featuring Perrie Edwards, Jesy Nelson, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall - revealed their third studio album, due later this year, is almost finished and features "a whole new sound" for the singers.
They explained: "We've been working on the album for quite a while, we just want it to be perfect.
"It has a whole new sound. It's literally completely different to anything we've done before."
The 'Wings' hitmakers released their second studio album 'Salute' in 2013 and are now feeling eager to let their fans hear their next single because they are so unsure about how it will be received.
They continued: "Words can't describe how excited we are for this single because it's a bit of a risk, but so were 'Wings' and 'Move'."
However, as well as feeling excitement about releasing the new music, the band - which formed on the 2011 series of 'X Factor' - confessed they are feeling nervous about the style of music they have created.
The told BBC Newsbeat: "It's scary because we've never done this style before but we're excited because it's a new lane, a new year and we're feeling very positive."

Liam Gallagher has branded Kanye West "Utter S***".
The 42-year-old musician slammed the rapper while he performed his track 'All Day' along with British grime artists Skepta, Krept and Konan, Jammer and Novelist at the BRIT Awards last night (25.02.15).
Writing a rare message on Twitter during the ceremony, he said: "Kanye West. Utter Shit. LG x (sic)."
Although he was left unimpressed by the 37-year-old star's performance, the former Beady Eye and Oasis vocalist - who has daughters Molly, 16, and Gemma, 3, as well as, sons Lennon, 15, and Gene, 13 - admitted he was a fan of his earlier work including his debut album, 'College Dropout', released in 2004.
In a follow up tweet directed at Kanye, he wrote: "...And you're a million miles away from College Dropout. That's artistry. LG x (sic)."
Instead, the 'Wonderwall' hitmaker suggested the 'Bound 2' hitmaker - who has 20-month-old daughter North with wife Kim Kardashian West - should listen to the music of 52-year-old The La's rocker, Lee Mavers.
He added: "check out Lee Mavers LG x (sic)."
Meanwhile, other stars were more positive about the controversial performance, which featured 39 mentions of the N-word, with BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac praising the "powerful and impactful" track.
She tweeted: "That Kanye performance is the most powerful and impactful thing I have ever seen at the BRITS. Would have liked a 16 from Skepta though."